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Gov. Rick Scott's budget includes $3.2 billion for First Coast

The state budget has $1.2 billion for public education and construction.

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed $74.2 billion budget has more than $730 million for his traditional political foes, looks to eliminate sales taxes paid by manufacturers, and includes more than $3 billion for the five-county Northeast Florida region.

The proposal does not address the optional expansion of the state’s Medicaid program authorized by the Affordable Care Act, which is one of the state’s largest unanswered budget questions.

Unveiled Thursday, it represents Scott’s recommendations. Lawmakers will write their own budget during the spring legislative session, which Scott has veto power over.

Scott includes $480 million for “across-the-board” raises for classroom teachers, one of his top priorities. The money is part of an overall $1.2 billion boost in public education funding.

Though the budget is the largest in state history, up $4.4 billion since 2009, it spends $2,754 per state resident, the third-lowest number since 2000.

The budget includes $3.2 billion for the First Coast; the largest portion of that is $1.2 billion for public education and construction projects.

Other big-ticket regional projects include:

- $33 million for continued work on the outer beltway

- $21 million for improvements to Blount Island and Talleyrand Marine Terminal at Jacksonville Port

- $6.1 million for Port of Fernandina pier extension

- and $2.7 million for Edward Waters College.

Scott said Thursday was “not the day” to address the thorny Medicaid problem because there are too many unanswered questions from the federal government. Cost estimates for the expansion, which would add more than 800,000 people to the program, have ranged from $3 billion to $26 billion over the next 10-years.

Legislative leaders indicated they were willing to move on the issue without a recommendation from Scott.

The teacher pay raises have received mixed reactions from the education community, which remains critical of a 2011 bill recently upheld by the Florida Supreme Court requiring state employees, including teachers, to contribute 3 percent to their pensions.

Another one of Scott’s top priorities is the elimination of the sales tax on manufacturers’ equipment purchases, which, Scott says, would save them $141 million.

The tax puts “our state at a competitive disadvantage because most states do not force manufacturers to pay taxes on the purchase of equipment,” Scott said.

Scott’s also includes $148 million in bonuses for state employees that receive an “outstanding” evaluation and another $167 million for those with a “satisfactory” evaluation.

Combined with money for teachers, Scott is proposing giving $733 million in incentive and pay raises for state workers, with whom he has historically butted heads.

The increased funding for traditional political opponents comes as his approval rating hovers in the mid-30s and with his 2014 reelection campaign looming.

His plan does eliminate 3,623 state positions, of which only 1,200 are vacant. Last year, 1,191 state workers were laid off, more than the previous five years combined.